There’s No Place Like a Second Home

by Carla Griffin on April 16, 2012

What appeals to a good second home candidate? It’s all about these potential buyers assessing personal needs and desires. Many of these second-home markets fall outside of extreme metropolitan jurisdictions and into just-off-the grid suburban areas with lush art scenes, recreational opportunities like golf, hiking, mountain biking, horeback riding and nearby national parks that lure in buyers. For some cities, universities draw in homebuyers, whose children often live in the home while enrolled in school.

Another fact in second-home consideration is finding a place that may eventually turn into the primary home. NAR reports that 34 percent of vacation homebuyers said that they plan to use their property as a primary home in the future. For the prospective retirees, this is particularly common.

I am seeing many baby boomers who are planning to retire in the next few years take advantage of our low market prices with intent to move here after retirement.

One thing is certain: Prices will go up. It’s just a matter of when. Our prices are at bottom, but how long it will take for them to start going up is uncertain. So for the second-home curious types, it may be now or never. If one is interested, you should start poking around now as the inventory is very low right now, which should be putting some upward pressure on prices.

The low supply and the low prices are about the same as they were in 2000. If you are on the fence, I would recommend buying now because in two or three years when the prices go up, you’ll look back and think “I should have bought then!”